State House District 43 race: McNulty seeks fourth term

Colorado Speaker of the House Frank McNulty, 39, is running for his fourth term in House District 43, after which he would be term-limited if he wins. McNulty won the previous three elections in the district easily, picking up wins by margins of 22, 26 and 34 percentage points.

The 34-point victory came in 2010 over Democratic challenger Gary Semro, who McNulty is facing again this year.

Married to Shannon McNulty, the speaker was raised in the south metro area and graduated from Mullen High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado and law degree from the University of Denver. Prior to being elected to the state House, McNulty worked in the Washington office of former Congressman Wayne Allard and was a member of Gov. Bill Owens’ administration. He is currently an attorney at the firm of Grimshaw and Harring.

Colorado Community Media asked the following questions of the candidates in the race for HD-43. Below are McNulty’s answers.

What makes you the best candidate for this office?

My background in water provides a sound foundation to continue to secure a long-term water future for Highlands Ranch. My record shows a strong focus on ensuring funding for our public schools and I have worked alongside my Democratic colleagues to craft state budgets that have passed the House of Representatives with broad, bipartisan support.

I have fought to protect our children from violent predators and will continue my fight to make our community safer. My record has helped protect qualifying seniors from property tax increases and has protected funding for low-income women to be screened for breast cancer. I will always prioritize efforts to improve job creation and economic opportunity in Colorado.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the district and what would you do to meet that challenge?

Highlands Ranch is a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family. All of this relies on the availability of good-paying jobs and career paths for our college graduates. Times are still tough. The economy is still staggering along and unemployment in Colorado remains above 8 percent. We can do better and we must do better.

College graduates, along with our friends and neighbors who are still unemployed, need an environment that fosters job creation and innovation. We must do all that we can to help create that environment and get Coloradans, across the board, back to work.

What should be done to improve Colorado’s K-12 educational system?

We must always look to make sure that we adequately fund our public schools. We have great public schools in Douglas County and wonderful teachers who focus their lives on educating our next generation of leaders. We need to support them and make sure that they have the resources they need to be successful in the classroom.

A public school funding formula that prioritizes teachers, students and their work in the classroom is a good first step to improving our K-12 educational system. We must always recognize that, if we want our public school system to be great, we must put teachers, students and parents first. After all, they know the children best.